Saturday, December 25, 2010

ISLAMABAD: The report of the UN fact-finding commission says the then Rawalpindi City Police Officer (CPO), Saud Aziz, had ordered to hose down the scene of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination at the Liaquat Bagh on the order of the chief of the Military Intelligence of the time, Major General Nadeem Ijaz, who was not only a relative of Pervez Musharraf but also a known crony of the former dictator. The report lays a lot of blame on Saud Aziz on different counts, especially washing of the crime scene and lack of autopsy. He was posted as the CPO Multan immediately after the present government came to power. The commission attached a great significance to the washing of the crime scene to eliminate the evidence that could have proved tremendously useful in investigations into the assassination. At one place, the report said, the then Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General Lieutenant General Nadeem Taj met Benazir Bhutto in the early morning hours of December 27 at the Zardari House Islamabad. It said that directly knowledgeable sources told the commission that they spoke both about the elections as well as threats to her life; versions differ as to how much detail was conveyed about the threats. The commission is satisfied that at the least the ISI chief told Benazir Bhutto that the agency was concerned about a possible terrorist attack against her and urged her to limit her public exposure and to keep a low profile at the campaign event at the Liaquat Bagh later that day. According to the findings, another source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Saud Aziz was ordered to hose down the scene by the then MI chief.

The report said that an ISI officer, Rawalpindi Detachment Commander Colonel Jehangir Akhtar, was present at the RGH through much of the evening. At one point, ISI deputy chief Major General Nusrat Naeem, contacted senior physician Prof Mussadiq through Colonel Jehangir’s cell phone. When asked about this by the commission, Nusrat Naeem initially denied making any calls to the hospital, but then acknowledged that he had indeed called when pressed further. He asserted that he had made the call, before reporting to his superiors, to hear, directly from Prof Mussadiq that Benazir Bhutto had died. The commission said sources informed it that Saud Aziz did not act independently in deciding to hose down the crime scene. One source, on condition of anonymity, said the CPO had confided to him that he had received a call from the Army Headquarters instructing him to order the hosing down of the crime scene. Others, including three police officials, told the commission that Saud Aziz did not act independently and that “everyone knows” who ordered the hosing down. However, they were not willing to state on the record what it is that “everyone knows”. This is one of the many occasions during the commission’s inquiry when individuals, including government officials, expressed fear or hesitation to speak openly, the report said.

It said that on three different occasions, senior Physician Professor Mussadiq of the RGH, where Benazir Bhutto was brought from the Liaquat Bagh, asked Saud Aziz for permission to conduct her autopsy, and the CPO refused each request. On the second request, Saud Aziz is reported to have sarcastically asked the professor whether an FIR had been filed, a matter that the CPO should know, not the professor. The report said that the then District Coordination Officer of Rawalpindi Irfan Elahi (now a senior Punjab government official), who was also present outside the operating room of the RGH, supported the CPO’s position. The authorities, however, deny that the CPO deliberately refused to allow an autopsy. They insist that they wanted to get permission from Benazir Bhutto’s family. However, the commission said the police’s legal duty to request an autopsy does not require permission from a family member. It said that because Prof Mussadiq could not obtain police consent to carry out an autopsy, he called in X-ray technician Ghafoor Jadd, who took two X-rays of her skull with a portable X-ray machine. He did this without notifying or seeking Saud Aziz’s consent. Though not present at the time, a radiologist examined the X-rays the next day. Benazir Bhutto’s death certificate was completed and signed by the senior registrar, Dr Aurangzeb, who recorded the cause of death as “To be determined on autopsy”. The report said that soon after the blast outside the Liaquat Bagh the CPO left the crime scene for the RGH; SSP Yaseen Farooq followed shortly thereafter. The most senior Rawalpindi police official remaining at the crime scene was SP Khurram Shahzad, who continued to take instructions from Saud Aziz by telephone. The management of the crime scene and the collection of evidence by the Rawalpindi police during this time have generated considerable controversy. The commission said that senior Pakistani police officials explained to it that in law and practice, the ranking police official at the scene of the crime takes decisions relating to crime scene management. SP Khurram asserted that he made the decision to hose down the scene. Before issuing the order to the rescue and fire services, Khurram called his superior, Saud Aziz, to seek permission, which was granted. Sources, including police officials familiar with the case, questioned the veracity of SP Khurram’s claim that the decision was his initiative.

The report said Saud Aziz’s role in this decision is controversial. Many senior Pakistani police officials have emphasised that hosing down a crime scene is fundamentally inconsistent with Pakistani police practice. While they acknowledge that there is no uniformity of practice in crime scene management in Pakistan, the washing of such a place is considered extraordinary. Indeed, with the exception of some Rawalpindi police officials, nearly all senior Pakistani police officials have criticised the manner in which this crime scene was managed. One senior police official argued that hosing down the crime scene amounted to “criminal negligence”. According to the commission, several senior police officials who know the CPO were troubled that an officer with his 33 years of experience would allow a major crime scene to be washed away, thereby damaging his reputation. The report said that some senior Pakistani police officials identified further factors suggesting that the CPO was not acting independently. They point out that, while the deliberate hosing down of a scene is unheard of in police practice, it has occurred on a few occasions, in each case when the military has been the target of such attacks and the crime scene was managed by the military directly. Even Saud Aziz, the commission said, when asserting to it that there were precedents for hosing down a crime scene, acknowledged that all the incidents which he posited as precedents actually involved a military target. The police officials who point out this pattern saw it as further indication that the military was involved in having the crime scene hosed down.

The report said since the extraordinary nature of the hosing down of the crime scene generated such controversy that Punjab government officials recognised that some response was necessary. A three-member inquiry committee was set up by the chief minister to look into the washing down of the crime scene. The commission requested meetings with these individuals, which the facilitation committee was not able to arrange. No credible reason was provided. However, the committee accepted the Rawalpindi police explanation that the decision to wash the crime scene was formed by the investigating police officer at the scene, SP Khurram, with permission from CPO Saud Aziz, on grounds of public order. The committee had further found that the decision was not made with any mala fide intention and that washing the crime scene did not negatively impact on the conclusion as to the cause of death. The commission said Benazir Bhutto’s Land Cruiser was initially taken to the City Police Station some time after midnight early on December 28 and then taken to the Police Lines. In the early hours of December 28, Saud Aziz went to see the Police Lines, together with others, including ISI officers, who were the first to conduct a forensic examination of the vehicle. An investigating police officer on the orders of the CPO removed Benazir Bhutto’s shoes and took them to the City Police Station. Sometime thereafter, the shoes were ordered back into the car. The report said the commission is not convinced that the decision to wash the scene was made by Saud Aziz alone. The attack was too significant and its target too important to Pakistani society to make such a decision solely on his level. “Sources told the commission that CPO Saud Aziz was constantly talking on his mobile phone while at the hospital. In the commission’s view, he has not adequately explained who called him during that time. Other sources have provided credible information about the intervention of intelligence agencies in the case. Whoever was responsible for this decision, and for whatever reason, acted in a manner that is contrary to the most basic police standards and hampered the proper investigation of the assassination,” the report said. The report said the lack of a clear cause of death established by an autopsy severely affected the credibility of the government among the general public and has given rise to wide speculation as to the cause of Benazir Bhutto’s death. CPO Saud Aziz again appears in a setting in which he seems to have been able to impede the effective investigation of the crime. Again, it is unlikely that a police officer of his level could make such significant and ultimately destructive decisions on his own and wield such power. He maintains that he did not deny any requests for an autopsy.

Furthermore, it said, the CPO impeded some Joint Investigation Team investigators from conducting on-site probe until two full days after the assassination. The failure of Punjab authorities to otherwise review effectively the gross failures of the senior Rawalpindi police officials and deal with them appropriately constitutes a broader whitewash by Punjab officials. The commission said the deliberate prevention by the CPO of a post mortem examination of Benazir Bhutto hindered a definitive determination of the cause of her death. It was patently unrealistic for the CPO to expect that Asif Zardari would allow an autopsy on his arrival in Pakistan at the Chaklala Airbase nearly seven hours after his wife’s death and after her remains had been placed in a coffin and brought to the airport. The autopsy should have been carried out at the RGH long before Zardari arrived. REFERENCE: Ex-MI chief Nadeem Ijaz ordered CPO to wash Benazir murder scene Saturday, April 17, 2010 By Tariq Butt http://thenews.jang.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=28353

If we apply Hamid Gul’s logic then Jinnah’s death was caused by a conspiracy hatched by Fatimah Jinnah to possess property, Pistol was not fired by Said Akbar on Liaquat but by Rana Liaquat and Tara Maseeh was Nusrat Bhutto in Adiyala Jail in 1979. Would Hamid Gul like to give some clue about his role in General Zia’s death?

ISLAMABAD: There is nothing new in the UN Commission report on the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, except giving a clean chit to President Asif Ali Zardari, former chief of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt Gen (R) Hamid Gul said here on Friday. “Despite the fact that Benazir Bhutto had deviated from the American agenda before her assassination, there is no mention of the United States and Blackwater (now renamed Xe Worldwide),” said the former top spymaster of the country while talking to The News. “Also, there is no mention of Khalid Shahinshah, who was a prime witness,” he commented. Lt Gen (retd) Hamid Gul said that former military ruler Gen (retd) Musharraf, who was at the helm of affairs when Benazir Bhutto was murdered, too was given protocol by the incumbent government and allowed to go abroad. He said there was no difference between the UN Commission report and that of the Scotland Yard. “The government’s request for a UN inquiry is nothing except expression of distrust in the national investigation agencies,” the former ISI chief said. “Had the national institutions been tasked with a thorough probe into the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the real culprits might have been exposed,” he remarked. The former top spymaster of the country believed that the Taliban and al-Qaeda were not involved in the assassination of the former Pakistani prime minister and were dragged in merely to malign them. He opined that he did not see the involvement of Pakistani or religious elements in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. REFERENCE: Hamid Gul says it is ‘Save Zardari Report’ Saturday, April 17, 2010 By Mazhar Tufail http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=234666

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s former chief of intelligence Brig. Imtiaz Ahmed (Ret.) has strongly rebuffed the allegations of being the CIA and Israeli agent, which was leveled by Hamid Gul in his interview with Arab News on Sunday. In a statement, Brig. Ahmed said that Hamid Gul is a “compulsive liar.” He alleged the statement made by Gul reflects his “intellectual and mental bankruptcy” and “innate shallowness.” “Those who know Gul inside out would bear me out, as they know that Gul is the embodiment of opportunism,” he added. “The history of my 17-year career in intelligence is testimony to the fact that I have always fought against the CIA, the Mossad, the RAW (India’s intelligence service), the KGB and other hostile intelligence outfits, at the risk to my life, to defend the sovereignty of my country.” Imtiaz vowed to uncover the misdeeds and dreadful professional failure of Gul in the near future. “Gul has forgotten that he begged for a higher position from many rulers including Pervez Musharraf in the past. I also remind Gul about his dirty role played in the past to create serious misgivings between the then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and Farooq Leghari, who was then the president.” SOURCE: Pakistan’s ex-spy chief rebuffs Gul’s remarks by Azhar Masood I Arab News Tuesday 28 July 2009 (30, Shaban, 1430) REFERENCE: Brigadier (R) Imtiaz ‘Exposes’ General (R) Hamid Gul http://chagataikhan.blogspot.com/2009/08/brigadier-r-imtiaz-exposes-general-r.html

I wonder on whose order General [R] Hamid Gul wind up the Probe of 'mysterious' Plane Explosion of General Zia??? Would Hamid Gul like to give some clue about his role in General Zia’s death?

When I got to Pakistan in February and called upon General Hamid Gul, the Director General of the ISI, I found out that political events had apparently overtaken this mandate. He told me that his agency had called off its investigation at the request of the government and had transferred the responsibility for it to a "broader based" government authority headed by a civil servant called F.K. Bandial. It was not using the resources of his intelligence service and, as far as he knew that committee had not begun the work. His tone suggested that, he did not expect any immediate resolution of the crime. REFERENCE: Major General [R] Mahmud Ali Durrani and Security Breach http://chagataikhan.blogspot.com/2009/01/major-general-r-mahmud-ali-durrani-and.html Brigadier (R) Imtiaz, Death of General Zia & American Conspiracy! http://chagataikhan.blogspot.com/2009/09/brigadier-r-imtiaz-death-of-general-zia.html

38. Ms Bhutto stated shortly after the attack that she was not accusing the government for the attack. However, on 21 October 2007, she attempted to lodge a formal complaint in the form of a First Information Report (FIR) to supersede the Karachi police’s FIR, which she believed to be too narrow in scope. In her FIR, which was only registered long after her death, after a protracted court process, she referred to the threat against her posed by persons she named in a 16 October 2007 letter she sent to General Musharraf. While Ms Bhutto’s FIR application does not name these persons, Pakistani and foreign media soon reported that Ms Bhutto’s letter referred to Lt.General (ret) Hamid Gul, Director General of MI under the General Zia ul-Haq dictatorship and Director General of the ISI during her first tenure as prime minister; Brigadier (ret) Ejaz Shah, Director General of the IB and former ISI official; and Mr Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, PML-Q Chief Minister of Punjab, one of General Musharraf’s closest political allies. The Ministry of the Interior later discounted any involvement by these men in the attack. REFERENCE: Report of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry into the facts and circumstances of the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Mohtarma Benazir Bhuttohttp://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/Pakistan/UN_Bhutto_Report_15April2010.pdf

179. Persons accused by Ms Bhutto in a letter dated 16 October 2007 179. On 16 October 2007, Ms Bhutto writing from Dubai to General Musharraf, identified three people she considered a threat to her security: (i) Brigadier (ret) Ejaz Shah, Director General of the IB at the time of the assassination, (ii) General (ret) Hamid Gul, a former Director General of the ISI, and (iii) Mr Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, Chief Minister of Punjab until 22 November 2007. REFERENCE: Report of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry into the facts and circumstances of the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto http://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/Pakistan/UN_Bhutto_Report_15April2010.pdf

218. Ms Bhutto’s own concerns about threats to her by Al-Qaida and other militants resulted in part from her knowledge of their links with people who had worked with or been assets of the ISI. She feared that the authorities could activate these connections, using radical Islamists to harm her, while hiding their own role in any attack. This was the basis for her allegations against Lt. General (ret) Hamid Gul and Brigadier (ret) Ejaz Shah, in her 16 October letter to General Musharraf. Gul was Director General of MI under Zia ul Haq and then Director General of the ISI when Ms Bhutto was Prime Minister in 1988-90. Although he was retired, Ms Bhutto believed he still maintained his former close ties with the militant jihadis. Brigadier Ejaz Shah, Director General of the Intelligence Bureau in 2007 and a former ISI officer, was a member of General Musharraf’s inner circle. When Omar Saeed Sheikh¸ the main accused in the Daniel Pearl murder case, was cornered in 2002, he requested to surrender to Brigadier Shah. Some believe this was because of Brigadier Shah’s reported intelligence connections with Mr Sheikh; Brigadier Shah vigorously denied this and told the Commission that the surrender was facilitated through family ties in their home community. REFERENCE: Report of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry into the facts and circumstances of the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto http://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/Pakistan/UN_Bhutto_Report_15April2010.pdf

KARACHI - Another FIR of the Karsaz blast was registered here on Friday against unidentified culprits with the Bahadurabad Police Station, just a day before the first anniversary of the tragic incident on the directives of the Sindh High Court. The letter written by Benazir Bhutto has also been cited in the FIR wherein former chief minister Punjab Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, former DG FBI Ejaz Hussain Shah and former ISI chief Hamid Gul have been named. The Government of Sindh has got registered this FIR under No 213/2008. In her statement, Benazir Bhutto had expressed her suspicion over three persons for plotting her assassination and they would be included in investigation. Sindh Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza held a meeting on Friday in central police office in connection with registration of new FIR. IG Sindh Sultan Salahuddin, CCPO, Karachi Waseem Ahmad, DIG investigation Karachi, Ghulam Qadir and others attended the meeting. The meeting also decided to increase the reward money from Rs 5 million to Rs 10 million for those who would provide information in connection with arrest of accused persons. The Karsaz massacre took place on Shahrah-e-Faisal on October 18 last year on the arrival of martyred PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto and claimed more than one hundred lives and left around 500 others badly injured. - Former Director General IB, Brigadier [R] Ejaz Shah - The first FIR 183/2007 was registered within a week of the tragic incident but the PPP leadership declined to accept its subject and filed a petition for the registration of another one. The sections, added in the new FIR, included 302/324/427/120-B/34-PPC/Explosive Act 7-ATA 34 and 109. Experts believe the addition of section 109 in the FIR is a major breakthrough that defines that the conspirator, who had hatched the conspiracy, was also involved in the heinous crime. Town Police Officer, Sohail Zafar Chattha, while talking to The Nation, said that Shaheed Benazir Bhutto was the petitioner and, for that matter, was the complainant in the new FIR. He added that a case has been registered against the unidentified persons whom the complainant had named in a letter she had written to the then President of Pakistan they could be involved in her assassination. REFERENCE: Police to question Pervaiz, Gul, Ejaz By: Mansoor Khan Published: October 18, 2008 http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/18-Oct-2008/Police-to-question-Pervaiz-Gul-Ejaz

Clue 1: As per Daily Dawn dated -04-02-2008 report “In the book some extracts of which were carried by The Sunday Times (Exclusive: Benazir Bhutto’s last testament) Ms Bhutto gives a hint about the hands that wrote the plot to kill her. “When I returned, I did not know whether I would live or die. I knew that the same elements of Pakistani society that had colluded to destroy my father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and end democracy in Pakistan in 1977 were now arrayed against me for the same purpose exactly 30 years later. “I was told by both the Musharraf regime and the foreign Muslim government that four suicide bomber squads would attempt to kill me. These included, the reports said, squads sent by the Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud; Hamza Bin Laden, a son of Osama Bin Laden; Red Mosque militants; and a Karachi-based militant group.” Benazir’s ‘last testament’ gives hint about plot to kill her February 04, 2008 Monday Muharram 25, 1429 http://www.dawn.com/2008/02/04/top5.htm

Clue 2: “She disclosed that a media representative had told her on return from Dubai that he had received a phone call from a retired military official that there would be an attack on her that day and that the MQM would be doing that. “I said that if such an attack comes, it will not be from the MQM.” Zia remnants’ blamed for Karachi carnage: Benazir vows to confront militants, fears more attacks By Shamim-ur-RahmanOctober 20, 2007 Saturday Shawwal 7, 1428 http://www.dawn.com/2007/10/20/top1.htm

Clue 3:

“QUOTE”

I knew that the same elements of Pakistani society that had colluded to destroy my father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and end democracy in Pakistan in 1977 were now arrayed against me for the same purpose exactly 30 years later. Former prime minister and Pakistan People’s Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto on Friday condemned the suicide attack on her rally and blamed it on what she termed ‘Zia remnants